Spotify Launches Spotify Radio, The Pandora Radio Experience at LeWeb

Spotify has launched a new feature called Spotify Radio, a Pandora-like service that lets Spotify users create Pandora Radio-esque stations. The Spotify Radio feature was announced at the LeWeb conference in Paris by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek.

Of course MOG, Slacker Radio and others have had these Pandora Radio features all along, so as popular as Spotify is, we should remember that this is a catch-up feature for Spotify. It's like Apple ... they announce a feature, the whole world is captivated and thinks they invented it, even though it was around for years previous. Still, it's a good service for Spotify to add and helps gain momentum in terms of awareness. The only way to do the Pandora Radio thing with Spotify before this was to use the Echofi app which was created by Echofi.

"The change also increases the importance of discovery on the service. As with the social integration with the company's Facebook app, which lets people see what friends are listening to, the radio station app will help expose people to new music," writes CNET.

Spotify had just announced its Spotify apps program last week, which makes Spotify as much of a music platform as it does a streaming music site. Spotify apps can be created for Spotify playlists, show tickets, MP3 stores, Spotify invites for listening parties, whatever you can think up. DREAM BIG.

So in addition you all of your Spotify playlists and individual songs and albums you use the site for, you can now use Spotify Radio to help recommend new music for you. This will add on to the Facebook Music launch that happened back in September, in which Spotify was a lead partner. Spotify and other streaming music sites were added as activities in peoples Facebook timeline, so that friends could find new music by seeing what their friends were listening to. Spotify now requires a Facebook Connect ID to join, so there are multiple ways in which Spotify premium customers can get in on finding new music. All of this bodes well for anyone looking to get turned on to new music.

Earlier this week it came to light that a Spotify iPad app was in the works, one that will take advantage of the full real estate of the iPad screen. "Our goal is to have Spotify available on every device possible and we’re working on new apps all the time," said Spotify rep Chris Maples when speaking to Pocket-Lint. He also said the new Spotify apps platform was "the biggest announcement that we've ever made" and a Spotify iPad app was "a priority" and was "absolutely in the pipeline."